Articles tagged with Gordon Brown

It’s been over twenty-four hours since the one-time boy wonder of the new Labour movement announced his intention to stand down from Parliamentary politics and head off across the pond. The wailing, gnashing of teeth, renting of garments and laments along the lines that David would have, one day, returned to the front bench to lead the comrades to the sunlit uplands of electoral success, is finally dying down.

In the Twittersphere, Budget day is always an exciting occasion. It is a day on which pre-prepared tweets by loyal Conservatives surface, blaming Labour for the deficit (in a manner which can only be compared to a toddler screaming “but he started it”), angry Labour voters arm themselves with metaphorical hammers to break apart anything Osborne says, before he even opens his mouth, editors of national newspapers accidently leak budget reports and

I’m not always polite. When discussing issues with people I think are wrong, I don’t always keep my cool. I can be a hothead. I enjoy a good barney. Particularly online.

What I try really hard not to do, is be rude to people whose job – explicitly – is to be of service to me. I thank bus drivers while complaining about the bus service. I am polite and friendly to security

Nick Clegg’s apology about breaking his 2010 election pledge to scrap tuition fees may not have the effect he hopes for – what with students who are the first to be hit with the trebled £9000 tuition fees starting fresher’s week.

In a party political broadcast to be aired during the Lib Dem conference, he says: “There is no easy way to say this: we made a pledge. We didn't stick to it

The chemistry between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls at their joint Q &A today was the strongest I’ve seen it in a long time – they were slapping each other on the back, finishing the other’s sentences, making jokes together – a veritable bromance. They had ostensibly set up the event to talk about falling living standards and the news that the UK is now in a double-dip recession, although usual form with these

What would you do if you have a really important set of decisions to make? Decisions that will have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people, on the future of the country and – although of course you are too saintly to think of this – on your own future career prospects.

Locking yourself away in secret and deciding all the key decisions on your own before presenting them to

New Year predictions tend to be the archetypal example of page-filling waffle, so let’s try to inject something a bit more exciting into the early January snooze-fest by attempting to make some money.

Betting on politics is an underrated activity for those inclined to throwing their cash away. What better way to test out your political nous than by putting your money where your mouth is? Here are three tips that might just

Theresa May faces a tough time in the Commons today when she takes questions on the Home Office, and makes a statement on the way border controls were secretly relaxed this summer. She will have to answer questions on whether any terror suspects are thought to have entered the country during that period.

May had better have some good answers because take immigration, one of the most controversial of all

Ten years is a veritable lifetime in politics. In that time (and in the couple of year preceding,) Tony Blair oversaw changes in his party and politics in general that we may only fully appreciate with the proper passing of time.

Blair and his leading allies must watch on in horror as those from the Brownite bunker who now run the party try to dismantle everything they built. Never mind conference delegates booing

The joke is a vital weapon in the politician’s armoury. It can put an audience at ease, diffuse a difficult question, convey intelligence or spike an opponent. Jokes have mass appeal and politicians want to appeal to the masses - they’re the perfect match.

PMQs has a healthy viewership, in part, because you’re pretty much guaranteed a couple of laughs in the half hour (not a great hit ratio admittedly but better than

An amazing thing has happened since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. The UK has apparently become a nation of sure-footed, confident economists. Politicians, union leaders, that guy sitting at the bar in the pub; from all you can now hear apparently convincing and certain remedies for sorting out the economic situation. And why is this amazing? Well because the majority of people, politicians included, have no true understanding or meaningful experience

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